A Study Of Hobbesbaum 's Thought Of "National And Nationalism"

In today’s world, with the rapid development of science and technology and the evolution of globalization, the problem of civilization clash becomes increasingly serious, and the conflict even the war among different nation-states seems to be increasingly hard to avoid. Therefore, how to deal with their own affairs and the relationship with other nation-states has been not only a matter of the development process of human civilization, but related to human beings’ survival and development. It seems to be self-evident to do the research about ethnic problems’ modernity and urgency. Among many scholars’ researches of Marxism abroad, the study on "Nation and Nationalism" raised by the new British Marxist scholars Hobsbawm is especially profound and extensive. Based on the Marxist national theory, he avoids how to define the concepts and the standards of ethnics, but focuses on their changes and transformations, and by means of the research about nationalism, he illustrates the complexity of ethnic problems, further explores the problems on the mode of national construction. What’s more, he analyzes the global and national issues as a whole, finally forms his idea of "Nation and Nationalism", which provides not only many viewpoints worthy of deep thinking, but much experience worthy of learning on the study of “Nation and Nationalism” for us. Thus his thinking has played a significant referential role for understanding the development and evolution of nations and nationalism in the world.This thesis, taking Eric Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism" as the research object, based on a detailed overview of Hobsbawm’s lifetime, important works and his thought of "nation and nationalism", aims at reviewing the standpoint, analysis method, prospect and limitations on Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism", then discusses the plight and reasons of the nation and nationalism in the world, further draws lessons for breaking through the dilemma of enlightenment from Hobsbawm’s thought of "Nation and Nationalism".This paper is divided into five parts. The first part is introduction, mainly about the significance of writing this paper, the domestic and foreign research, thesis theme, structure arrangement and research methods about Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism". The second part is the body of the thesis, which mainly summarizes Hobsbawm’s life and important works. The third part is the whole generalization on the main content of Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism", including the concept and characteristics of "nation", the exploration on "nationalism" from different perspectives, and the overview on "nationalism" from different stages. The fourth part mainly analyzes the standpoint, analysis method, prospect and limitations on Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism" from the perspective of the author. The fifth part is the creative part of this paper, from the perspective of the world, combining the plight of the modern nations and nationalism, the author tries to find its reasons, and finally gets the enlightenment from the research on Hobsbawm’s "Nation and Nationalism”.